When your brand talks, who’s really behind the message?
I recently gave a presentation that included this graphic:
I was speaking at a webinar about using thought leadership to create more human marketing.
My point was simple: Every idea needs a person’s name attached. Brands don’t have ideas. Companies don’t have perspectives. People do.
So how can we incorporate more people into our marketing?
I see an opportunity for marketers to give their work a major upgrade by finding, supporting, and guiding hidden thought leaders in their organizations.
Here’s how.
Find your thought leaders. Look beyond the C-suite.
When we think of thought leaders we admire — the people who are thinking in public, sharing their expertise, perspective, and vision — we think about founders. Owners. CEOs.
But what about everyone else? Sure, it’s easy for the person at the top to have a clear vision and the freedom to share it. But there are many other people who are doing interesting work, testing new ideas, experimenting, and reflecting on what they’ve learned.
As marketers, it’s our responsibility to find those voices and bring them to the surface. Don’t let your company’s best ideas stay bottled up in your Slack channel or team meetings. Identify them and use them to power a broader conversation.
(My webinar hosts at Scribewise even made me a handy little audio clip with this advice.)
Empower those thought leaders to be interesting! Teach people to share their ideas and their work, not just their good newsI speak from personal experience: When we take to social media to fire off a LinkedIn post or draft a tweet, we turn into promo-bots. We think about how to promote ourselves.
I started working in online marketing in the early days of social media, and I remember learning to keep social posts “light and bright.” Good news only. The internet is forever, so let’s keep it positive.
And while that’s not completely bad advice, it keeps us from sharing the full story. And it blocks us from sharing what’s actually interesting. Instead, we just promote.
Here’s an example. Let’s say I work in HR and I just won a big industry award for a program I developed. I could open LinkedIn and say:
“I’m so excited that my #awesome #team won a big #award! Here’s a pic of us celebrating at the awards #gala! #bestteamever #ourbrandwins
Zzzzzz. Seriously boring. People might scroll past that and think “Oh, good for her, looks like things are going well.” But I haven’t shared anything about what my team did, why we won an award, how I think, or what I value. This is just boring promotion.
But! Instead, I could say:
“Two years ago I had an idea. What if we dramatically shifted our diversity and inclusion program to focus on outcomes, not just quotas? With the help of my all-star team, that idea has become an award-winning program that is getting accolades and inspiring others. Here’s what we’ve learned so far…”
In the second example, I’m sharing my ideas and my work. I’m thinking in public. I’m opening up my thought process. I’m reflecting. I’m inviting others in. I’m saying something.
And that’s my call to marketers: Let’s think bigger, bolder, and more specific when we think about thought leadership. It’s not just about getting your CEO published in Harvard Business Review. It’s about digging up the good ideas that make your organization unique.
It’s about telling your audience, “This is what we have to say.”
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